KIPP Tulsa receives national award for computer science gender diversity

By Lenzy Krehbiel-Burton

A Tulsa charter school is getting national recognition for its efforts to diversify the tech world.

The College Board, which oversees the Advanced Placement Program, announced that KIPP Tulsa’s University Prep High School is one of 1,020 schools nationwide to receive the 2020-21 Female Diversity Award.

The College Board presents the award annually to schools where at least half of the students who take an Advanced Placement computer science exam are female or the exam participation rate of female students was greater than or equal to the school’s overall female enrollment.

The only honoree in Tulsa, this is the second consecutive year that KIPP Tulsa’s University Prep High School has earned the award. Other Oklahoma high schools receiving the accolade include Blanchard, Grove, Norman North and Dove Science Academy’s Oklahoma City campus.

According to data published by the College Board, female students sat for more AP exams across all subjects than their male and non-identifying classmates nationwide in 2021.

However, they accounted for only one-fourth of the students who took the AP Computer Science A exam and one-third of the students who took the AP Computer Science Principles exam.

By comparison, the student enrollment in the AP computer science classes at KIPP Tulsa’s University Prep is half male, half female.

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